Amid the ongoing nationwide protests that have left Brazil’s government scrambling to appease demonstrators’ demands, the country’s legislators are hammering out a new law that will increase the penalties for corruption.

The protest demonstrations, which are targeting rampant
corruption, inefficiency of public spending and lack of social
protection, continued on Wednesday night in Latin America’s
biggest country. Some 40,000 protesters gathered in a march to a
stadium in the city of Belo Horizonte during a Brazil-Uruguay
Confederations Cup match. The billions of dollars spent on
hosting the sporting event is among key points of criticism by
the demonstrators.

Police responded by firing tear gas as demonstrators attempted to
break through barricades, which were erected about 2km around the
stadium. Protesters picked up tear gas canisters and lobbed them
back at police along with showers of stones and other
projectiles. Two protesters were hurt in the confrontation,
including a man who fell from an overpass and was critically
injured.

Earlier about 50,000 earlier gathered at the city’s central
plaza. And overnight some masked men shattered the windows of car
showroom and set a shop on fire.

About 2,000 people marched through the northeastern city of
Recife. In the capital, Brasilia, demonstrators were seen kicking
soccer balls over a police blockade towards congress, in a
statement against the billions that have been spent by Brazil in
preparation for the Confederations Cup and the 2014 World Cup.

In a bid to appease protesters, the lower chamber of Brazilian
parliament has fast-tracked measures to stamp out
corruption. The
legislation, which will still need to be ratified by a second
congressional chamber, is expected to sail through and become
law. Once enacted, those individuals prosecuted for acts of
corruption could face up to 12 years in jail. The bill had not
made much headway since its introduction in 2011, but was
approved within 48 hours following president Dilma Rousseff’s
push for approval.

Additional measures to toughen
the state’s punishment include the loss of amnesty for those
convicted of corruption, and will make obtaining bail and parole
more difficult.

The ongoing protests that have seen well over a million gather in
cities across the country were triggered by proposed public
transport fare hikes, but quickly grew to encompass a host of
complaints, the majority of which revolved around corruption long
ingrained in Brazil’s political life.

In addition to harsher treatment of corruption, Brazil’s congress
has also voted to use all royalties from the country’s recent oil
finds - which are expected to yield tens of billions of barrels
of crude oil - directly into education and health services.

President Rousseff, once a Marxist guerrilla who fought against
the country’s former military dictatorship, now finds herself in
the unenviable position of listening to protesters’ demands,
while avoiding becoming a target herself.

On Monday, Rousseff met with state governors and mayors to agree
on plans for additional public hospitals, as well as prioritizing
public transportation projects. On the agenda was also the
congressional action to use all royalties from new oil fields for
public services.

The Brazilian leader also proposed on Monday a plan to hold a public
referendum to directly enact political reforms. The move was
lauded as a bold plan, and likely an attempt by a popular
president to bypass the country's unpopular Congress with a
direct appeal to the people. Brazil’s legal experts,
however, said that was unconstitutional.

According to Reuters, the president of Brazil's Supreme Court,
Joaquim Barbosa, weighed into that issue after meeting with
Rousseff.

"Proposals have been sitting
for years in Congress, which has shown no interest in reforming
the political system. And that lack of interest, in part, has led
to the crisis of legitimacy we have now," said Barbosa.

Beyond the president’s initiatives, the president of Brazil’s
senate, Renan Calheiros, has also proposed free transport for all
students, in an apparent attempt to reach out to the Free Fare
Movement, a key organizer in the mass protests that erupted
several weeks ago.